City manager in it for the long haul | Mann Overboard

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If this office holder were actually running, nobody in this town would catch him.

I ran into trim-looking city manager John Mauro (OK, I was sitting) the other day near City Hall as he was walking his lunch back from the Co-op.

He won the North Olympic Discovery Marathon a few months ago, where his winning time was so good he’s now qualified for the prestigious Boston Marathon. Impressive.

“It was a hoot – I managed to have a good deal of fun until the last three miles when I really tanked. But still managed to walk away with first overall. It was my first marathon and the longest I’ve ever run!” (Walk away? Hardly)

“My time was 20 minutes under the Boston Marathon qualifying time, so it’s a bit irresistible to try that on next – I won’t be winning that one, though!” Mauro, a non-Kenyan and a realist, added.

“I’m drawn to Boston especially since my mom (long deceased) was a marathoner and would be super proud.” Run one for Mom!

The good-natured city exec added, “I find the challenge, peace, and joy of running in our lovely community a real boost to help me serve this community in my work role. Or, put another way, I’d probably go nuts without being able to move!” Mauro moves, all right. Continuously, for 26 miles.

— I missed out on my annual opportunity to erect a booth at Wooden Boat announcing: “Let Me Set Fire to Your Currency!”

Speaking of boats — big ones — a big iron one, a cruise ship, stopped dead in the water near Point Wilson recently, oddly enough. Why? A medical emergency onboard.

We took but one cruise a few years back, up to Alaska. You haven’t lived until you’ve shared a table with an RV salesman from Enid, Oklahoma, with an NRA cap and on supplemental oxygen.

Speaking of such, this from our Is-That-a-Gun-In-Your-Pocket? Dept.: People who spot such things tell me that some of the knuckleheads who showed up for the anti-trans rally here recently were packing heat. They were probably from a well-regulated militia.

— From the kitchen department: Eat ‘em while you can: Those Hermiston melons trucked in from Oregon are the best cantaloupe I’ve ever had. The Chimacum Market has alerted us when there’s a new shipment.

More Oregonia/Dishing it Out: Wonder why your butter dish is probably too small for most cubes? My wife researched this, learning that sticks of butter in the East are slimmer than the chubs here in the West, except for Tillamook. You can, um, spread the word.

— I didn’t catch the Leonard Cohen movie “Hallelujah” recently at the Rose, for good reason. This grouch was once the music critic of Cohen’s hometown paper, the Montreal Gazette. And I gave the ponderous Cohen bad reviews.

— Over the Boardwalk: The Guardian recently ran a piece about the world Monopoly champion, an American who lives in Venice (NOT the California one). I once actually won a big Monopoly tournament in the San Francisco area and would have gone to the national championships in Florida … IF I hadn’t landed on Pennsylvania Avenue with three houses.

Among the top Monopolist’s tips in The Guardian:

1) Going to Jail at the beginning of the game is bad, but it’s good later.

2) Try to get three houses on your properties; the big jump in rent is between House 2 and House 3.

3) The properties most often landed on are the reds and oranges (I knew that), and the most-landed-on space on the board is Illinois Avenue.

4) Read the rules, says the champ. You CAN buy and trade properties when it’s not your turn.

So readers, is there a Monopoly game played regularly in PT? At the Community Center, maybe? I’m ready to roll!

— One perk of living here is the ability to get Canadian radio stations. If this interests you, set your car radio to News 1130 in Vancouver (a fine news station); CFAX 1070 AM, a Victoria newstalk station: 97.7 FM(Radio Canada, the French CBC); and 690 AM, CBC in Vancouver. Quality broadcasting, a pleasant departure from commercial-laden Yank radio…

Finally, I’m happy we didn’t have to suffer a heat wave here, as they did down south last week. One woman in San Francisco tweeted: “My plastic house plants just melted.”

(PT humorist Bill Mann will not be running the Boston Marathon in this lifetime. Newsmann9@ gmail.com)